PvXwiki:Editing User and Talk Pages
Editing User Pages A user, to an extent, has sovereignty on his user page. While that sovereignty is limited, violating it is considered a policy violation. This means that, with a few exceptions, no user should edit another user's page. The exceptions to this rule are minor edits where consensus with that user can be assumed, for example: *fixing links *category tags *typos *reverting vandalism A user's right to edit their own user space is nearly unlimited; however, it does have a few restrictions. Adding Build category tags to the user space is forbidden. While this is not a punishable policy violation, such category tags will be removed if found on a user page. Furthermore, user pages may not violate existing policies that regulate what kinds of information users may disseminate. For example, violating NPA by making inflammatory or offensive remarks on your user page is not allowed. Finally, while users may choose to archive their user talk pages at a time of their choosing, they may not edit, strike, censor, or blank statements made by other users. The only exception to this rule is a violation of NPA. However, in order to document the offense, in most cases, the offending text should merely be stricken or archived, and not blanked. See here for more information. Editing Talk Pages Only Edit Your Own Comments There is a simple, all-encompassing rule that should be followed when editing Discussion pages. Never, ever edit, delete, or strike out another user's comments. While all users are free to edit or retract their statements, censoring another's comments in any manner is considered a policy violation. Users who, for any reason, wish to retract a statement of their own should not blank that statement but rather strike it by enclosing the text with .... , because the edit will appear as vandalism on both Recent Changes and Watchlists. Furthermore, while users may make minor edits to their comments, they should avoid entirely changing their core statement so as not to mislead readers trying to follow a thread. Don't Blank Discussion Pages In the same way as editing another user's comment, blanking a discussion page is considered a policy violation. Instead, if a discussion page has grown too long or the threads have become stagnant, those threads should be archived. Archiving not only provides a valuable means of documentation (if for nothing other than reference purposes), it also logically follows from existing precedent. Additionally, there may be something genuinely valuable on the page. Please note that not even the original author of a page may choose to blank its corresponding talk page. This includes using delete tags on a page and actually deleting it. For the case of User Talk Pages, please see PvXwiki:Editing User Pages. A Single Exception In only one instance is it acceptable to strike or even remove another user's text - when it violates no personal attacks and poses a continuing threat to a user (i.e., if personal information is revealed). As per the exception labeled "Removal of text," in some instances, with the approval of an Administrator, it may be acceptable to strike, archive, or blank (it depends on the circumstances) offending text. Indenting On this wiki and many other wiki's, Indenting is common and helps the flow of discussion on talk pages. Indenting is done by simply using 1 more colon then the comment you are responding, the colons go at the beginning of your comment, so if the comment you are responding to has 3 colons before it, you should use 4. If you are having trouble understanding this, look here for a thorough explanation of how indenting works. Archiving Threads When to Archive Threads are usually archived when the Discussion page has become burdensomely long and hard to navigate. However, threads that remain current (i.e. they are still relevant or there are continued posts) should not be archived. While any user may, if they deem it prudent, choose to archive parts of a discussion page, there is not always consensus. If another user deems the archived threads to still be pertinent, the archive should be reverted and left as such until an official decision can be reached. Generally, by the time a page needs to be archived, multiple people should already have said as much somewhere on the page, but this need not be the case. How to Archive To archive a talk page, move all content into a subpage, such as PvXwiki talk:Community Portal/Archive 1. Then, remove the redirect from the page and add the link to the subpage to the top of the talk page. If there's an archive box, make sure to cut and paste it back to the relevant page. Two useful templates for managing talk page archives you may want to look into are Template:Archive and Template:Archives. For a more detailed explanation of how to archive a talk page, please see this page. Related Links *PvXwiki:You are valuable *Guildwiki:No personal attacks *A useful, but not official, guide to User Pages may be found on Wikipedia here